


Visits to Wakanda: Time in Between

by ChestnutBrumby



Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Bucky Barnes & Wanda Maximoff Friendship, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Shuri is the bomb, Wanda is patient but not that patient, scarlet vision - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-08 12:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15930431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChestnutBrumby/pseuds/ChestnutBrumby
Summary: Some of Steve and the team's visits to Wakanda to visit Bucky Barnes, pre Infinity War.





	1. Chapter 1

Steve went alone, the first time. Sam and Wanda stayed in Greece, while Natasha had taken their jet back to the states to pay a visit to Clint and his family. She promised photos, especially of the kids - Steve knew Wanda especially missed them after a year of babysitting duty. Since the rescue, it was the first time Steve had split up from the team, and anxiousness made him restless on the journey through Africa. Even the amazing landscape and scenery couldn't keep him focused for long. 

T'Challa came for him himself, in one of his small streamlined jets, and grasped Steve's forearm with warmth after he stepped down the ramp to meet him. 

"It is good to see you my friend." 

Steve smiled back at him. "You too, T'Challa. Thanks for the ride." 

They caught up on the journey towards the city, Steve filling the new King in on the Raft rescue and assuring him the others were all recovering fine, the king listening without interruption, relief in his eyes. He had, after all, bore responsibility for Steve's teammates winding up in the Raft. For his part T'Challa passed on a few files and names the Dora Milaje had come up with, and Steve noted them down diligently. The worming relationship was new, but tentatively starting to form a strong bond of mutual respect. 

Wakanda was exactly as Steve recalled it. Everything was precisely ordered and constructed, both stern and welcoming simultaneously. Steve had little of an eye for the architecture, though. He nodded politely at Okoye as she greeted he and T'Challa outside and provided an escort in. 

"Are you hungry, Captain?" T'Challa offered, but Steve shook his head. "Yes, but it's already been too long." T'Challa smiled, understanding. "This way, then." 

Outside her lab, Shuri eyed Steve Rogers with obvious interest. She hadn't been in Wakanda when T'Challa brought Steve and Bucky there for the first time, and Steve could read muted excitement in her lively gaze. She stepped forward fearlessly to meet him and grasped both of his hands, as warmly as she might have greeted T'Challa. "Captain Rogers, about time I got to meet one of my brother's new friends." She glanced slyly at T'Challa, who looked amused but tolerant. 

"Just Steve, please. Nice to meet you, Shuri." It was difficult to get the Wakandas to drop the formality of the title, but Steve had to start somewhere. Shuri seemed like a good choice. 

"Come then, it isn't me you are here to see." Shuri grinned at him and swept him inside, a Steve went willingly along with her small whirlwind. 

He hadn't, in the days they had spent together before arriving in Wakanda, yet gotten used to how vulnerable Bucky Barnes looked with one of his arms missing. It was certainly a far cry from how he'd looked as the Winter Solider. 

A lot of things had changed, though. 

Bucky's eyes opened slowly, unfocused until they found Steve, hovering in front of the cyro tube. Recognition dawned, and he smiled faintly as he tried to move, wincing at how stiffly his muscles responded. Steve reached out a hand to catch him automatically as he stumbled getting to the floor. 

"Steve." Bucky mumbled, rubbing the back of his hand over his face. "You okay?" Steve had a black eye from a fight two days ago. He smiled and nodded. "I am now." He told his best friend, supporting him with a hand on his chest and one on his back, patient as Bucky struggled to find his balance. 

"The grogginess should pass in a few minutes." Shuri informed them both, eyeing Bucky now with about three times the excitement as when she had looked over Steve. Bucky presented a challenge to the Wakandan Princess she had not yet overcome. A scientific problem that she could spent countless nights pouring over until she found her solution. 

She would. She always did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wanda's patience wears thin with her teammates.

The second time, Steve brought Wanda as a peace offering. Not to Bucky - to Wanda herself.

It was the aftermath of a scuffle where Sam and Steve had been pinned down and Wanda and Natasha had come and rescued the boys. While fighting a group proclaiming themselves 'The Gamma Corps' Wanda had sustained a long knife cut along her arm and across her side before she had hexed the offending man halfway across the block. Natasha fought her way to Sam and Steve who were trading punches with three enhanced assailants while standing back to back. They managed to take down one while Wanda dealt with the other two from a safer distance. Exhausted and clamping her hand over the bleeding wound on her arm, Wanda slumped to her knees, and was swarmed by three anxious teammates.

"Wanda, sit down!" Steve's capable hands guided Wanda back, while Sam hovered over her arm and side, trying to get a better look. "How deep did that knife go in, Wanda?" She didn't get a chance to answer as Natasha made a low sound in her throat when she saw how much blood was coming from the younger woman's arm, taking out her frustration on the unfortunate Steve Rogers. "Steve, I told you I should have been on point for this mission! I knew the military one was going to be trouble, just look at Wanda now!" She gestured angrily at the youngest of the team. Sam had located a clean handkerchief to use as a bandage and gently pulled Wanda's arm closer to him to press it over the worst part of the cut. "Nobody likes an 'I told you so' Nat." He tried to defuse her anger with a bad joke, but Steve foolishly took the bait, a clear sign he was stressed. "Nat, I don't want her on the front lines every time! She's just a kid!" He argued back.

In a typical situation, Wanda had nearly endless patience for "her" boys, no matter how overprotective Steve got or how much Sam tried to counsel her. And Natasha, the only other female member of the team, the two of them usually stuck together. But right now Wanda was in pain and the acrid scent of her own blood was stinging her nose and she was being spoken over multiple times as if she wasn't there, and her temper snapped.

"HEY!" She shouted, her eyes flaring dangerously scarlet. It was a sharp enough word to both still and silence all three of them, even Natasha. Wanda brought her hand up, swirling crimson magic creating a makeshift seal over to stop her blood from flowing.

"Would all three of you shut up." She snapped, her accent more pronounced, which often happened when she was stressed. "In case you missed it, I just saved all of us. I'm not a kid, I am twenty-five years old! I don't care I got a stupid cut on my arm, I know the risks, and I accept them because _I am an Avenger _and this is what we do!" She declared, shoving Sam off of her and stalking away from the three stunned superheroes.__

__She felt ashamed of herself right after she stormed off, but not enough to go back, quickly cutting down a few alleys and finding a stretch of parkland. At two in the morning it was as good as deserted save for a few drunks snoring off a night's indulgence on a bench. Wanda pressed closer into the trees, starting to feel the cold now but enjoying the solitude. She wasn't afraid of being on her own. Besides, she would likely only be allowed a short while before one of them came after her. She was betting on Sam, who always tried to take other people's problems on his own shoulders._ _

__She shouldn't have yelled at the others like that. Having a temper tantrum only reinforced the idea she was the youngest and least mature of the group, but sometimes she just got sick of it. Being babied, and being protected, when her powers had never been stronger, when she had never been more physically capable. She ought to have chosen a better way to express herself, but she felt she'd had a valid point, however poorly she'd vented it._ _

__She pulled out her phone and dialed a number she was the only one to call, a number not in the few fake 'Mum' 'Uncle Foster' and 'Cute guy at the bar' contacts she'd created to make the phone look legitimate if anybody hacked or stole it._ _

__  
__

* * *

  


__Several blocks away, Steve sighed as he investigated the direction Wanda had taken, speaking into a nearly invisible comms piece adhered behind his ear._ _

__"Were their security cameras on that block, T'Challa?"_ _

__"Two, Captain. But when I had Shuri hack into them, the contents for the entire time you were fighting had already been erased." Steve frowned. "It's can't be Jarvis at work this time... I wonder what's going on there? Look, that isn't the point, sorry. I know my list of favours is growing, but can you give me a clue on Wanda?"_ _

__"Interestingly, there is a bank of security cameras two blocks ahead of you belonging to a petrol station. They have also been wiped."_ _

__"Owe you one, T'Challa. I'll see you on Saturday - thanks again."_ _

__"Do not mention it, my friend."_ _

__Steve followed his nose towards the scent of petrol from the station. He didn't want Wanda to get too far ahead of him, but he wanted her to be allowed some time on her own. A difficult balance, but he owed her that much.__  
  
  


* * *

__  
_ _

__"Vision, hey."_ _

__Wanda was proud of the nonchalance of her greeting. She ought to have realized that he always knew when something was awry when it came to her._ _

__"Wanda, what's wrong?" The concern in his voice melted her heart a little._ _

__"It's a long story."_ _

__"Are you well? Are you safe?"_ _

__"I'm safe, Vis. We just finished a fight and I got a small injury, that's all."_ _

__There was a pause laden with stress Wanda could almost discern as something tangible. "Please define small."_ _

__"A cut, it's not even bleeding anymore. I promise, I'm okay."_ _

__Vision sighed, and she could hear the soft clink of something as he set it down. "Wanda, there's something more than that. Tell me what's wrong." He coaxed, but the worry in his voice meant Wanda found herself replying, her ire perhaps remaining elevated enough she elaborated a little more than she originally intended._ _

__"The guys had an argument over if I should have been on the front line, and I was sitting right there and they were all just squabbling and talking over my head, and they call ME the child, I was the one to save their asses and end this mission without bloodshed - well theirs, not mine - and Vision, I just got so frustrated! Steve called me a kid and it was like the Accords all over again with everybody trying to make my decisions for me instead of giving me any say in my own damn life!"_ _

__Vision, to his credit, didn't interrupt. She felt a little guilty bringing up the accords when he knew he still harbored regrets over agreeing to keep her in the compound, even though he knew it had been wrong. He hummed gently once she was done. "Yes, I understand. It is human nature to nurture and to some extent to protect those of a younger age, but you are also at a stage of mastery concerning your abilities that you no longer require such a degree of protection. Though, do try to see things from Captain Roger's perspective, Wanda - it cannot be easy for him after loosing so much, to put you at risk as well."_ _

__Wanda grumbled begrudgingly. "But he does not have to call me ;kid'. It's so annoying."_ _

__"Tell him how it makes you feel, Wanda. The Captain is not an unreasonable man." Vision reminded her gently. She huffed. "You're probably right, as usual." That got a chuckle out of Vision. But he was still worried, as his next questions betrayed._ _

__"Are you certain that your injury is all right? That _you_ are all right?" _ _

__"Positive. You worry way too much."_ _

__"So I have been told." There was a smile in Vision's voice. Wanda was the one to tell him that, whenever he expressed his concern for her during the year going on missions together. It was still a struggle for both of them now to be parted. Especially on Vision, who had relied so much on Wanda to navigate human complexities._ _

__"I'll see you next week, right?"_ _

__"I am counting the minutes, Wanda. I miss you." Wanda felt her tension evaporating at the sincerity of those words. What would she do without this man?_ _

__"Miss you too, Vis. I'll call you tomorrow."_ _

__She was glad she hung up when she did. It was then she felt the familiar worried contours of Steve's mind approach. She sighed, stepping out from the grove of trees she had taken refuge in._ _

__"Here, Dad."_ _

__He smiled ruefully, and she saw the intention in his mind to reach out and put an arm around her before he remembered her aversion of touch, and respected her personal space. She appreciated it. They headed together by unspoken but mutual agreement to reunite with Natasha and Sam._ _

__"I deserved that."_ _

__"Mmm."_ _

__"I'm sorry, Wanda." She had felt frustrated enough to want to hold on to her annoyance for a little longer, but there was something so plainly earnest about Steve. The way he looked you right in the eye, the way everything he said was so totally heartfelt._ _

__There were a lot worse leaders to follow, Wanda thought. She followed Vision's advice, though._ _

__"It just bothers me, Steve. I've been an Avenger now for over two years. I'm not a child, nor do I appreciate being treated like one."_ _

__He still looked ashamed of himself. "I ought to have known better - once upon a time it was me in your shoes. I don't mean to keep treating you like one of the Barton children. You've been amazing on missions, I'm seeing your power grow every day. I'll work on it, okay?"_ _

__He looked so crestfallen Wanda found herself reaching out and slipping her arm through his as they walked. He looked surprised, but a smile touched his face._ _

__"Okay. I forgive you." She told him._ _

__"You're not going to make me grovel?" He smiled, squeezing her arm briefly against his body in a big-brotherly gesture. Wanda found she didn't mind so much._ _

__"You've forgiven me for a lot as well." Wanda had never forgotten her past, what had led her along the path to becoming an Avenger._ _

__"Well. I think I know a way to make it up to you - how does a vaccination sound? Have you ever been to Africa?"__  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanda is referenced a couple of times in the MCU as a teenager or a kid by Steve and by Clint, but to me that isn't solid evidence that she is in fact that young, it could just be the boys being over-dramatic overprotective macho men :P So I went with 25, which is a little younger than Elizabeth Olsen's real life age.
> 
> Also, I took Infinity War to my parents to watch with them and this was my mother's response for after Thor arrived: "Well he could have gotten there before Thanos killed Vision!"  
> Me: "THANK YOU MUM."

**Author's Note:**

> I know guys, I've fallen off the face of the earth recently, I'm sorry. I am still working on Marvel and of course Scarlet Vision stuff, just at a slow rate! 
> 
> Things to know about this one: It's been stated by the Russos that when we saw Steve and Bucky reunite in IW was not the first time Steve had been back to see Bucky so. This happened. 
> 
> I love Shuri but will probably keep her appearances here brief because I don't feel like I do her justice and she's just. All kinds of epic.


End file.
